Page 21 of Naughty Elf: Shimmersnap

“Of course,” I said. “We’ve got the Santa event, right?”

He nodded, then spun on his heel and went toward the bedroom. He came back a moment later, fully dressed. He finished his cup of coffee and set it in the sink. Meanwhile, I still looked around the room as if the elf was going to appear suddenly.

Shimmersnap came over and kissed me lightly. “Thanks for, you know, everything.”

I smiled. “I don’t think you need to thank me for that.”

He laughed, and for a moment, it seemed that everything would be just fine. I pulled him into my arms and held him tight.

“You know, lunch isn’t for a while. We could...”

His hands pushed at my chest. “As much as I want to, I do have to go. I promise I’ll call, okay?”

“Of course,” I said. A tiny shred of home sparked inside me. This wasn’t the end. I hadn’t driven him away with my preoccupation with my elf, even if it did still worry me about where he was.

He would turn up. He had to. It wasn’t like he walked away on his own.

Chapter 13

Shimmersnap

I panicked. I had nowhere to go. I lived with Walter. He just didn’t know it. So I did the only thing I could think of and popped back to the only place I knew as home. The North Pole.

Luckily, I had enough wits about me to pop someplace where I could at least get some advice. And where I wouldn’t make a scene. Pretty sure elves that had been fired weren’t allowed to just linger around, especially not this close to the big day.

The North Pole had a jail, and I didn’t want to visit it.

Dancer jumped when I appeared out of thin air, standing next to him in the barn where he was preparing all of his gear. It smelled of hay and shredded carrots with molasses—a staple for all of Santa’s reindeer’s diet.

“Shimmersnap, what are you doing here?” He looked around, making sure no one else had seen me.

“I need advice.” I didn’t even bother trying to be quiet. This couldn’t wait.

“You know this is like our busiest time, right?”

“I know, but—”

He sighed. “I know—if you don’t get Walter to accept you as his, you’re going to be stuck as a figurine. I guess that is pretty important.”

“Thank you,” I said. “I kind of forgot about that detail.”

He raised a brow. “You forgot that you need your mate to fall in love with you or else you’ll turn into a figurine forever?”

“Yeah. I mean, I don’t think it’ll be difficult for him to fall in love with me. I mean,” I gestured to myself, “I’m pretty great. Walter and I get along well. I’ve been working with him for six months. I think we have fun together. Honestly, he’s probably already in love with me.” I was in love with him.

Dancer raised a brow. “So things must be going better than the last time I spoke to you?”

“So much! Things have been amazing! We’ve been doing a lot of Christmas stuff together. Except this morning, when we woke up together—that didn’t go so well,” I said.

He nodded. “Together? Okay, so things are going really well.”

“Yes, but... he noticed that his elf was missing.”

“His elf?”

“Yeah, the one he keeps on his mantle and sometimes watches movies with.”

“I take it you’re the elf.”

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